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The Green Bag

So far as birth and social position are concerned,

Mr.

Elliott was seriously

miles every Sunday in one direction to recite Latin to a soldier, and several

handicapped. What education he re ceived he had to ﬁght for, working all day and studying the greater part of

ditions like that the young man fought

the night.

for an education in the law.

In the Bradford oil district in north western Pennslyvania in the early eighties there was a rush of legal business of the most chaotic sort. The laws governing the ownership of oil and gas were conﬂicting, and no one appeared to understand the law. Of all the lawyers who were then in this district young Mr. Elliott alone saw the great chance

miles in another direction to

Greek to a minister.

recite

It was imder con

By dint of much labor the small sum

necessary for a course in the University of Kansas was raised, and there young Ballinger went for three years. After his graduation from an Eastern school,

through which he was assisted by Senator John J. Ingalls, he studied in the office of S. Corning Judd, a prominent Chicago attorney. He went to Kanka

and took it. Very elaborately and painstakingly he went over every law that could possibly,

kee, Ill., and became city attorney; then to Decatur, Ala., to become city

by the farthest stretch of imagination,

ington, where, in Jefferson county, he

be applicable to any oil or gas case. Besides this he carefully familiarized

was for four years on the superior bench.

himself with all the methods used by the producer and the marketer of both

and in that city conducted a very high-class legal business before being called to join the Cabinet of Presi dent Taft.

these commodities. The reward for all this labor, which covered a period of many months, was

neither slow nor small. He won several cases from the Standard Oil Company. This was cause enough for him to attract

attorney; thence to the state of Wash

He later became mayor

of

Seattle,

R. S. Lovett, the late Mr. Harriman's “man behind the gun,” was discovered

away down in the Texan wilds. Just ﬁfty years ago he was born at San

the attention of the magnates, but he

Jacinto, and the San Jacinto of 1860 was

went farther. He demonstrated that he knew all that could be learned about

“some Western place.” In what schools there were there young Lovett received his education, topping off, some years later, with a course in the Houston high school. This was all of the

the oil and gas business, and that he was really the only one who did and

who could apply his knowledge. As a result, he was soon invited to

identify himself exclusively with the Standard and its general solicitor, and, since the death of Samuel C. T. Dodd, the former counsel-general, he has been

academic that he received. But it was enough. He was the kind that, his mind once made up, would learn the law whether or not there were any schools. He began at the bottom and worked

the Interior, who, when not actively

up through all the complexities of rail road law, representing at times about every line in the state. One day Mr. Harriman invited him into his private car and without further ado carried

engaged in politics, is one of the lawyers of the highest fee, used to ride many

chief counsel of his entire railway

at the head of the company's legal forces, a position that had made him one

of the best paid lawyers in America. Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of

him off to New York and made him